T+L Reports: Hotel Valley Ho

Scottsdale—the self-proclaimed "most Western town in the West"—is fast becoming more urban than cowboy. Anchoring a revival of its historic, gallery-rich downtown: the legendary Hotel Valley Ho, newly saddled up for the 21st century after a four-year, $80 million restoration by the team behind nearby Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain. Built in 1956 by a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright, the former two-story motor lodge has had the cast-concrete relief panels on its aerodynamic exterior buffed up in hopes of returning it to its Hollywood heyday, when newlyweds Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner slept here. The retro-chic guest rooms now have sliding glass walls, terraces overlooking Camelback Mountain, and oversized circular tubs. Hot chef Charles Wiley has reinvented 1950's comfort food (tuna casserole, anyone?) at Café ZuZu, and by summer, an old-school Trader Vic's will be dishing out pupu platters along with mai tais. For the morning after, you can join the golf obsessives who flock to Scottsdale, or go sybaritic with belly dancing and hammam treatments in the hotel's VH Spa. Hotel Valley Ho, 6850 E. Main St., Scottsdale; 480/248-2000; www.hotelvalleyho.com; doubles from $289.